Book Review - Martin Luther, Renegade and Prophet

Book Review - Martin Luther, Renegade and Prophet
By Lyndal Roper

As one of the most famous and consequential characters in European history, Martin Luther is an obligatory part of any high school’s history curriculum. We all know that Luther’s famous 95 theses, nailed to the Wittenberg church’s door in in 1517, challenged the authority of the Catholic Church, especially on the issue of granting indulgences.  Luther’s ideas led to a schism in European Christianity during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, culminating in the Thirty Years War of 1618 to 1648. In Martin Luther, Renegade and Prophet, Oxford historian Lyndal Roper gives contemporary readers a close personal look at the father of protestant Christianity, a complex character whose religious and philosophical belief continually evolved, both before and after the moment he nailed his theses to the church door. Over the course of reading the book one constantly has to remind oneself that Mrs. Roper wasn’t actually there to witness the events and talk to Luther first hand, his life and actions are so comprehensibly laid bare that you could be forgiven for thinking that was the case.

Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Saxony in 1483, but his family soon moved to the prosperous mining town of Mansfeld. His father, Hans, was a man of great stature and authority, who worked tirelessly to rise through the ranks and eventually became a mining inspector, a post which afforded his family a comfortable life. His hard work and toil were no doubt helped by the fact that Luther’s mother, Margarethe, came from a relatively prosperous mining family. It was Hans Luther’s wish that his eldest son should study law, since lawyers were much in demand in the busy mining town, and a trained lawyer would be of much help to the family. For Martin, however, his brief stint at law school proved to be an unhappy one, instead, Martin entered St Augustine’s monastery at Erfurt in 1505 to study theology and become a man of the cloth. This decision enraged Hans, who thought it a monumental waste of time, and showed little understanding for his son’s choice of career. Naturally this must have stung Luther, but he soon found other mentors to look up to for guidance within his religious order, the first and most importance of these being the noted preacher and theologian Johann von Staupitz. An anxious Luther confessed all his sins, real or imagined, at great lengths to Staupitz, who counselled Luther to pursue an academic career as a tonic for his theological self-flagellation.   

Even though he had chosen his own path in life, Luther was unhappy with the austere monastic life of a Dominican friar. He later attributed the lack of sleep, poor rations and freezing winter days spent preaching outside wearing nothing but a thin woolen robe for his poor health later in life. In 1507 Luther was ordained in Erfurt Cathedral and the following year, having earned his bachelor’s degree in bible studies, Staupitz invited him to come and teach at the newly formed University of Wittenberg, where he served as dean. Luther accepted his invitation, and his life took a turn for the better. He got on with his  work and enjoyed life in Wittenberg among his university students and colleagues. In 1512 he became a doctor of theology, reaching an important academic milestone.

At this point, the rest of Luther’s life could have been that of a rather anonymous provincial theology professor, content with his lot in life. However, it was not to be. Although criticism of the papacy was nothing new, the advent of the printing press meant that ideas could now travel far faster and further than what had been previously possible. Luther’s 95 theses were an attack on the authority of the papacy and its bloated administration, published in a form common for theological debates at the time. The theses spread all over Germany in a matter of months and became a source of debate and controversy. The core of Luther’s ideas, which he later expanded upon as he redoubled his attacks on the papacy, was that salvation lay in faith alone, and so could not be gained through alms or good works, and that all doctrines not found in scripture were to be discarded.  Essentially every man was to be his own scholar and interpreter of the bible, and did not need to look to a priest for answers. Luther was excommunicated and declared a heretic for opposing the Catholic Church, and at the Edict of Worms in 1521 he stuck to his beliefs when confronted by the Holy Roman Emperor himself, Charles V.  

Luther also attacked clerical celibacy, and married Katharina von Bora, a former nun. According to Luther the need for clergy to stay above the desires of the flesh was utter nonsense, since man was born into sin and led sinful lives no matter how devout they were, sex and procreation within the bonds of matrimony was as natural as passing water after drinking too much ale.    

Being an atheist myself, much of Luther’s criticism of the Catholic Church seems entirely reasonable, such as the abuse of the sale of indulgences, yet as Roper points out Luther’s motivations are hard to sympathize with for a modern reader. When German peasants, inspired by Luther’s writings, rebelled against their feudal lords, Luther sympathies lay firmly with the lords. He saw temporal matters as being entirely the domain of the aristocracy and the ruling classes, Roper writes, and so did not care much for the demands of the peasants. This led to Luther losing much of his popular support, and over time he became more of a symbolic character as the founder of a new branch of Christianity, himself less and less able to personally influence events.

Roper’s genius lies in being able to both place Luther’s actions in a historical context which is easy to understand, while also shining a light on all aspects of his character, good and bad. Luther was certainly an entertaining host and a good friend to many, imbued with a simple and rustic sense of humor. But he was also somewhat of a zealot, who turned potential allies into enemies because he refused to compromise on even the most trivial aspects of his beliefs. Perhaps it was that very stubbornness that enabled him to publish his theses in the first place. Luther was also an anti-Semite, and a virulent one at that, even by the standards of his time.

For all his many flaws, it is undeniable that Martin Luther irrevocably changed Christianity and the history of Europe. Lyndal Roper’s Martin Luther, Renegade and Prophet succeeds in explaining Luther’s life and legacy to the modern reader. At times Roper delves perhaps a little too deeply into the finer points of scripture and theology, but overall, she manages to keep up a coherent and interesting narrative throughout the book.